I don't know any purple people.

And of course race matters although but shouldnt. It's established fact that many Americans treat non-white accused differently than white ones. We've seen it here from some commenters for years. The ingrained bias couldn't be more obvious.

Coincidentally, it often comes from people who like to say that they don't care if someone is purple or green. So watch that.

This is a r[emarkable book about scientific racism][1], by the way, and gives a lot of fascinating information on the role old man Simmons (the late previous owner of the Fairview Inn) played in the so-called "academic" world of scientific racism. One of the main goals of segregationists was to get white people to fear black "thugs" and believe they were more crime-prone -- and support violence against them without due process.

Remarkably, people on this thread are parroting that exactly: saying that Thomas deserved to be executed for a property crime no one has actually bothered to prove he committed.

Looks like the Citizens Council's work took hold pretty darn well in some of you.

[1]: http://books.google.com/books?id=C-jIEh…

*We have effectively decriminalized lynching under certain conditions. We need to acknowledge this and correct it.*

Powerful, Tom. And you're right on, although people have to know or care what lynching actually was to understand why; good explanation above.

We should all ask ourselves seriously why ALEC wants these kinds of laws on the books. Is it really to help please the gun lobby so they continue to support corporate-owned political candidates -- or is it more nefarious a la Manhattan Institute-esque scientific racism? I wonder this often.

Not to answer for Tom, Space, but it's clear that's not what he's saying. He's talking about the law that is providing cover/justification for too little investigation of a case as disturbing as this one. It is unclear, and very unsettling, why JFP and the DA's office have done so little, and these stupid laws open the door for all kinds of abuse, intentional or not.

As for the parallels with lynching-era Mississippi, it is more the commenters who sound so gleeful that an unarmed skinny 20-year-old was riddled with bullets that bring the parallels to mind. Perhaps you don't know this, but throughout our history, suspicions (or lies) about crimes have justified the execution of one young black man after another. Thus, these comments really do make it sound like Mississippi hasn't changed.

To outsiders reading this: Know that these old-school comments do not represent all of Mississippi. So many people have changed, but these kind of people, hiding behind fake names, are the ones who squawk the loudest and make us sound like we haven't changed a bit in 50 years. We have, although not enough over all. The fact that we can even have this conversation publicly proves it.

Same for your comments, tsmith. Why not just stick to trying to make intelligent points instead of going personal? In other words, discuss the topic without personal attacks or move on.

I see today that this story is getting a lot of national play. So to be clear should anyone make an assumption that it was a white homeowner or such: Every major player mentioned in R.L.'s story above is black: Thomas, the homeowner, the district attorney, JPD decision-makers (not sure if any of the officers on the scene were not), the families, and so on.

As for a "Trayvon situation," it actually has some disturbing parallels. First, we don't know for certain what the young man was really doing because there was no real investigation to find out. And the Zimmerman defenders swore up and down that Martin was (a) looking to steal something and/or (b) trying to hurt Zimmerman. If you look at it logically, at least Trayvon actually engaged with Zimmerman (I would argue in self-defense, but still). Here we don't have non-conflicting evidence that Thomas did anything to threaten the homeowner -- who came looking for him (as Zimmerman did).

Now, I'm not saying the homeowner is a Zimmerman by any means. But the case needs a real investigation. He went outside looking for him, so he clearly wasn't fearful for his life. Then he riddled the unarmed Thomas with bullets.

So there are suddenly important parallels. Oh, and there is that other little detail that Thomas was guilty of nothing, in the United States, until a jury finds him guilty. He was killed before proved guilty.

It would be different if he was breaking into the home and threatening the family. He wasn't. Call the police. Or shoot him in the leg if you must. But fire six bullets into him? That deserves a real investigation.

It. Must. Happen. The public interest demands it.

> Blockquote

Actually, it is not clear whether the homeowner acted within the parameters of the law. He may well have, but there was no real investigation, and there are open questions that need to be answered. The whole point here is that the police and DA should, must pursue a real investigation. All of y'all chiming in that it was the right thing to do actually have no idea what actually happened and whether it was right, and if there was no threat of bodily harm, you're going to have a hard time convincing non-gun-zealots that it was "right."

I don't know anybody who has moved to Gluckstadt. What fun that would be up there.

And the suburbs have problems as well; why are you turning this into an anti-Jackson rant? Oh, right.

These topics really bring the best out of some of y'all. Are you reading before you hit "post comment"? You know that people can actually see you saying that it's a good idea to execute someone who isn't threatening a life because they (might) be trying to steal property, right? And that no real investigation is needed.

Remarkable.

Thanks, Tom. I agree that the story had to be told. And cheers to the mother for not letting it die. Some will try to say she's just doing it for her baby, but you know what, the killing of anybody's baby deserves a real investigation, regardless of the challenges they faced. And I've always thought of that as the American way. I get real patriotic over the whole "innocent until proved guilty," and both parties in this case deserve that.